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The Bajpe police here arrested a 36-year-old man from Bangalore on Tuesday on the charge of molesting a Malaysian student on board a Mangalore-bound flight.

The victim, a student at a private dental college here, made a complaint to the police that Ankur Agarwal “molested” her throughout the journey from Bangalore to Mangalore.
Agarwal, a quality checker at a private hospital in Bangalore, was sitting next to her in the flight. He “touched her in a sexual way on the pretext of falling asleep”, she alleged.

The victim said she started crying as soon as the flight landed at the airport. When the crew enquired with her, she narrated the incident. Agarwal had alighted from the flight and left the airport by the time authorities called him back. The Bajpe police, who rushed to the spot, then detained him.

The suspect, however, denied molesting his co-passenger and claimed that he might have touched her “unintentionally” when he was “fast asleep”.

Police later arrested him under Section 354 of the IPC for assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty and produced him before the court in the evening.

A native of Uttar Pradesh, Agarwal is married and has children. He had come to Mangalore for auditing.

Malaysian girl alleges co-passenger misbehaved on flight, 1 arrested

MANGALORE:(TOI) An employee of a private hospital has been arrested after a Malaysian student accused him of misbehaving with her on a flight.

 The girl, a student of a Mangalore dental college, accused Ankur Agarwal, 36, of touching her inappropriately on the JetKonnect flight from Bangalore to Mangalore on Tuesday. The flight had left Bangalore at 7am.

 The girl accused Agarwal, 36, manager, quality, with Manipal Hospitals, Bangalore, of misbehaviour. Though she didn’t report the incident to the cabin crew, she complained to airline staff on landing. They informed Bajpe police, who took him into custody for questioning.

 Agarwal was later arrested and taken to Wenlock Hospital for a check-up. Police said a magistrate remanded him to judicial custody.

 Inspector Narasimha Murthy said Agarwal was charged under IPC’s Section 354 (criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty).

 The accused told police, sources said, that he was taking a nap during the flight, and that an accidental slip of the hand was misconstrued as sexual harassment.

 The inspector confirmed that the victim did not complain to the cabin crew. "We’ll call the cabin crew for questioning,’’ he said. The crew was unaware of the incident till the girl spoke to the ground staff.

 "If the incident had happened mid-air, the crew has to file a report with the safety department at the Bangalore office,’’ a source said.

 Agarwal was to conduct a quality audit of the Mangalore and Manipal hospitals. The girl was returning to Mangalore from Malaysia.

 When TOI contacted Agarwal to ask him for his version, he disconnected the call. Repeated attempts to contact him were futile.

 Manipal Hospitals declined to comment. Ganesh Selvaraj, senior GM, human resources, Manipal Hospitals, said: "Ankur Agarwal, manager, quality, is an employee associated with us, and we are aware of the matter. Since the investigation has not been closed and police are probing the situation, we cannot comment further at this time."